"Parents will be paying for the flight academy. It is still far cheaper than a four year."

What 4 year schools are you looking at? Assuming you are looking at flight academies like Pan Am and ATP those are pushing $80,000 for their programs if you finish on time. That is not chump change. I can find plenty of 4 year colleges that don't require that much.

"I will CFI around my college schedule"

How do you figure? Flight Students fly during the day, you'll be in class.

"The money I get from instructing will go to my tuition."

Again, how do you figure? You'll be in class and not flying much, I bet whatever you get from flying will be going towards food and the gas in your car. You are paid by the hours flown, not a salary, the less you fly the less money you make. At the airports I worked at as a lineman, the CFIs were also doing lineman jobs and office jobs to supplement their income for those rainy days they didn't fly, can you work that in too?

"I can always instruct or do charter flying for my local FBO."

You have to get hired first! And chartering isn't handed to you when you start as a CFI, you have to put time in to get those opportunities.

Listen to what these guys are saying, they have been there and know what they are talking about, you may like your plan now but 3-5 years from now things may (And probably will) change. I had a plan like you and lets just say it changed A LOT throughout the last 5 years.

 

First, good on your for deciding to yes, go to college. Now, I will continue to play "the other side" and thus you will be able to bulletproof your plan.

CFI will pay for college: For this to occur, you need to secure a CFI job before or immediately after starting school. Not 3 years later. Well, unless the school is okay with delayed tuition payments.

Doing "charter flying" requires you comply with 135 requirements and as a new CFI with 251 hours, you do not meet them.

Social life: you need one to enrich yourself, learn about the opposite sex (yes, I am serious) and mature yourself, and learn from others. If you want to pass ANY panel interviews, ANY "tell me about a time" questions, ANYthing like that, your past social like and social skills developed over the years will come into play here.

Airlines and big corporations seek "well balanced" and well rounded applicants for jobs, and your resume / personal history will reflect this. If you plan on military pilot slots, FBI/DEA/Customs, and while not officially stated, legacies will want this too, but extracurricular activities, community service type work, internships at companies, etc look very favorably, as this is considered leadership and character development.

You are probably a good guy, no offense, but my assessment (and I had a printed FAA private license in my pocket at 18 and CFII at 22...) is that your plan, as outlined is not do-able.

Good Luck

 

I see your parents are funding some of your schooling; that's great news, but be considerate of their money (unless they're millionaires) and go the Part 61 training route, which is cheaper. No matter what you do, by all means...STAY AWAY FROM LOANS! I know why you're in a rush, most of us probably were at your age, had a game plan all mapped out and then reality hit us. Don't rush, take your time to BUILD YOUR TIME as CFI, fund it by working hard during college and use the money wisely.

As everyone is saying, go to college, get a 4-year degree; your job/company choices are going to be limited to whoever doesn't require it; and don't get your hopes up about Delta not requiring it.

Want to know what it's really like if you go to an expensive flight academy or university and borrow up to your nose? Here's my story...

19 y/o got the bright idea to ditch working as an A&P apprentice and start flight academy full-time, coupled with an A.S degree (not a terrible idea, but I should've gone to a Part 61 school)
23 y/o after getting my commercial rating and having borrowed nearly 80k, I found out academies promising jet transitions at crappy regionals and all the other b.s. we like to hear...I ditched the academy and went somewhere else for my M/E (saved thousands). That's when I learned the hard way that NOBODY wants a 250hr pilot to work as SIC (due to insurance mainly) and that regional airlines pay trash. My loans were out of deferment by then...so it was off to work a full-time job and didn't fly for two years while I figured out my next step.

26 y/o got my CFI at a Part 61 school (saved thousands) and started instructing (best decision EVER, wished I had done it sooner). And so I did this for 4 years. Along the way I graduated Commercial, M/E students who were crying about having spent about $40k for EVERYTHING...that sure made me feel pretty darn stupid for spending 80-90k on my TRAINING, NOT including a B.S/B.A degree. I got lucky and someone I trained needed an M/E commercial pilot and I built my M/E time which led then to a couple of crappy Part 135 jobs in Piston-twins and now I am FINALLY at a job that pays a decent salary and I'm flying as Turboprop M/E Captain. But this transition wasn't quick, it took me 5 years to get here; my only regret is having spent the money. That's because being a CFI, and Charter pilot have taught me so much that I couldn't begin to tell you. To actually earn my hours and fly as PIC has been invaluable, it looks great whenever I'm given a chance to show my experience.

So now, some might be happy with my salary, but I cannot be...paying $800/month in loans means I have to live cheap (live with family), can't really afford to finish that B.S/B.A I need for better jobs, and other things I have to forgo because of those dreaded loans.

Get a degree asap in something you like or are even remotely interested in. You will need it someday when you see the reality of being a pilot, the crappy jobs, crappy salaries, crappy work hours that you'll have to put up with while getting to the level that Delta will even bother to skim over your resume.

There are great success stories out there teeming with good fortune and luck, but that's all it was..LUCK. I'm glad for those guys and I'm even more glad for the ones who were smart enough to stay out of debt and thus be able to live off of Regional salaries while they build their experience up to their dream-job levels.

Don't make excuses (I don't like anything but aviation, I am scared of college, my gpa blah blah blah) EXCUSES. You can do anything you want, and if you've got great advice, information and drive, nothing will stop you from being at the top one day. Just make sure you always look out for your financial FUTURE, not just how to get there in x amount of time. If you stay out of problems, you'll be happy as hell sitting in a crj collecting what they pay and knowing you're on a path to your dream.

Really, look for a life beyond aviation. There are many things that can catch your interest and are fun to do for a living as a backup. I just hope you don't end up like many guys I avoided at the flight school who would talk aviation and airplanes 24/7, they were a BORE. We pay up the nose to sit in a plane and get hammered by a CFI, raise our stress levels and sweat checkrides...you'll wanna talk about sports, cars, women, beer, fun! trust me, you don't wanna be "that guy."

 

CFI Job paying for college?

Best of luck to you finding a CFI job that will do that for ya.

 

What he said.

 

This is all very helpful information and I thank you all for your input. I still have a year and a half before I do anything so I have a generous amount of time to pull more research and make more decisions.

About being "that guy" I can still hold my own In most conversations! I try not to make excuses but I just don't see myself going to school for anything else...

If I went to school for something other than flying it would have to be (I hate to say it but it's true) Aircraft engineering and design. I always liked the homebuilt side of airplanes and, let's face it, we all would like to design our own "dream" airplane.

I understand what is required for charter and when I wrote that in earlier I kind of put it there as an alternate option.

I know I want to go to a flight academy and my parents are pushing me to go to a flight academy and NOT go to college... Keep in mind my brother is a kinesiology major, my dad was an architecture major and my mom was a business major so I was shocked when they said they weren't going to make me to go to a 4 year nor did they want me to go to one.

Only after telling them everything you have told me, they decided I needed to go to a flight academy first, get my ratings, CFI during weekends and summers of college and go where ever after that. They figure going to Aerosim and getting my ratings before college allows me to make money during college rather than making no money (or just enough money to eat with a min wage job). That's the reasoning behind it I have a few people I need to talk to including a current united captain and an Alaskan airlines captain.

I'm not sure if any of you know about the Patriots jet team in CA but it's an all volunteer (no one gets paid on the team at all) demonstration jet team that flys the L-39. That is where I currently volunteer, most of the pilots are current or ex airline and military pilots (even an Ex Canadian snowbirds lead pilot), I have the opportunity to talk to them and I plan to ask a few questions. Most likely will also be able to get some L-39 type time before I graduate too

Anyways, now that you know more about me and my family than most of my friends do, I hope this clears up any confusion from a past post. Looking forward to your replies and opinions once again!

 

First of all, good for you for doing the research and talking to various people of this. Always good to get multiple opinions and ideas.

For what it is worth, I'll give you a little of my background then my two cents on what you might want to do. My passion (and I think anyone who knows me would agree with the use of that word) for flying started in 3rd grade. I, like you, am very lucky to have supportive parents who whole heartedly encouraged and financially helped me become a pilot. I was able to solo on my 16th birthday and received my private pilot license half way through my senior year in high school. After high school, I went directly to ERAU. Although it has been a long road since then (about 20 years), I'll stop there and give you my thoughts about situation.

First of all, getting a degree 4 year college degree is important, there is no question about it. However, how, when and in what is another situation completely.

Besides a few of the senior level classes at ERAU (which where really good classes), having that school's name on my resume did not help in my career. I was never asked about it or about my GPA or about any of the classes I took. The flight training was nothing to speak of and in fact, I got so frustrated with attitudes of the flight instructors, I took a year and a half from the school before finishing. There are other options.

I would recommend, once you are done with high school, doing both flying and college together. However I would do it locally. Find a local Part 141 flight school FBO. You mentioned you were in CA, if you are in SoCal and close to Orange County airport, I can HIGHLY recommend Sunrise Aviation, sunriseaviaiton.com. Best thing I did in my career was get my CFI with them, wish I had gotten all my rating there. Whatever flight school you choose, fly with them at least 3 times a week. The more you fly the better. On the days you are not flying, enroll in a local college and take classes towards a degree. Maybe get all your GE credits out of way while you learning to fly.

Speaking of subject matter, I would recommend something other than a professional pilot degree. That is what my degree from ERAU is in and I am regretting it. If I had to do it again I would get a degree in aviation safety. Look around, I'm sure you can stay in the aviation industry/field and find a degree program that speaks to you (you can even use the UND and ERAU websites to look at different options).

Deviating from current course....you don't need to worry about your timing with the "pilot shortage". You are in a great position to reap the benifits of the coming pilot retirements. By the time you get your hours and ratings, the regionals will be "licking their chops" for you. And by the time you get your turbine PIC hours at the regionals, the majors will be looking forward to your resume. Use this time to focus on becoming a good pilot with good aeronautical decision making skills. Over the past couple of years, major commerical aviaition accedents have occured because pilot forgot what they learned getting their private pilot licenses (stall and low speed recovery).

Ok, I've rambled on long enough. Hope this helps.